Villages to be left without buses when Corby-Harborough service is axed

Kate Cronin

A rural bus service which connects villages to Corby and Market Harborough is to be withdrawn this summer.

The 67 bus runs several times each weekday and on Saturdays between Rockingham, Gretton, Corby, Cottingham, Wilbarston, Weston and Market Harborough.

Wilbarston, where there will be no buses at all if the number 67 bus is scrapped

Its withdrawal means some of those places will now have no buses at all.

Several campaigns have been started to save the service, which is being withdrawn after Northamptonshire County Council said it could no longer afford to subsidise each passenger journey by £16.65.

It said the service was the second-worst performing in the county and the subsidy is about six times what it would expect to pay for a service of this sort.

Bus operator Centrebus said it would no longer be viable to run the service without the subsidy so announced the whole service would cease on July 23.

But local people say this will leave people in their communities isolated.

People in Wilbarston have started a Save The Bus campaign and in Gretton, a Facebook campaign has been started.

A statement on the Wilbarston campaign page says: “Many of our community rely on the bus for medical appointments, work, education, visiting elderly relatives, shopping and leisure.

“Without this transport link, many of our senior community members will feel extremely isolated.

“Yet again, rural areas are being hit by financial cut backs.”

And in Gretton, Chairman of the parish council Andrew Royle said people in the village were hugely disappointed to hear that the service was stopping.

He added: “NCC were surprised by Centrebus’s decision to withdraw the whole of service 67 after July 23 as their understanding had been that the single vehicle operation on Monday to Friday was commercially viable, and Centrebus had given them no indication otherwise when they informed them of the likely withdrawal of their support for the service before Christmas.”